High school wrestling: Shorthanded Beachwood falls in regional final

ROOTSTOWN — Having a lineup with three empty spots isn’t an easy way to go through a dual tournament.
Beachwood has had that problem most of the season, but it caught up with the Bison only once they reached the regional finals of the state duals.
After a come-from-behind victory over Berkshire in the semifinals, Beachwood lost, 37-32, to Rootstown, falling one match short of reaching Columbus for the team tournament.
A forfeit counts for six points, so the Bison’s inability to put a complete lineup on the mat handed their opponents an 18-point edge — statistically indistinguishable from three pins.
“Obviously we give up a lot of points,” Beachwood coach Dugan Bentley said. “We know that when we get to the bulk of our lineup, we need to have everybody scoring. We think of the best-case scenario and the worst-case scenario, and in this situation, it wasn’t the best case for us.”
The Bison fell behind, 24-0, to the Rovers on three major decisions and two forfeits. Beachwood won six of the final nine matches, but after a forfeit to Rootstown’s defending state champion, Travis Linton, at 170 pounds, there weren’t enough matches left to make up the deficit.
Josh Bialoski (195), Paul Flowers (220) and Tyler Thomas each had pins to end the match, turning a 37-14 deficit to the final five-point margin.
“I can look up and down our lineup and find different scenarios that could have played out,” Bentley said. “You can’t put it on one thing or one kid. We did well, fought hard and got a win. It didn’t work out perfectly, but how often does it?”
The win against the Badgers was almost the same story. After Berkshire’s Ben Blechschmid (160) earned a 10-5 decision over Andrew Kitay, the Badgers led, 32-12.
A major decision by Gordon Hong (170) and pins by Ryan Harris (182) and the aforementioned upper-weight trio gave the Bison 28 unanswered points and a 40-32 win.
Beachwood led by two points going into Thomas’ heavyweight bout and needed any kind of win to clinch a berth in the regional finals. Thomas, a first-year wrestler as a junior, pinned Berkshire’s Tony Urban in 1 minute, 12 seconds.
Beachwood forfeited at 113, 126 and 132 pounds but won 8 of the 11 matches wrestled.
“At the beginning of the year, it looked like we were going to have a full lineup,” Bentley said. “As the season progressed, we started to realize that it’s a tall task. We had kids coming in that we thought would be key players. We have a lineup of talented kids, but we’re giving up too many free points. It’s hard to beat a team like Rootstown like that.”
Midway through the dual with Berkshire, Beachwood’s Anthony Walden (145) was called for an illegal slam on Cody Charvat. The Badgers were awarded six team points when Charvat was too injured to return to the mat. That gave them a 29-9 advantage.
“That kind of stuff can be a game-changer,” Bentley said. “That’s at least a nine-point swing, because I’m pretty sure (Walden) was going to win that match. Instead we give the six points. That got me a little nervous. It wasn’t until the heavyweight match that I wasn’t nervous.”
Beachwood’s two state champions, Harris and 138-pounder Sam Gross, finished 4-0. Harris had the fastest pin of the night, getting a win against Berkshire in 14 seconds. Gross had a technical fall and a major decision.
Rootstown beat Girard, 34-27, in its semifinal.
Beachwood will next compete at the Chagrin Valley Conference tournament starting Friday in Aurora.